Breaking Congestion, South Korea Plans To Introduce Drone Taxi Service In 2025

Illustration of a drone taxi. (Source/Hyundai)

JAKARTA - South Korea is introducing a commercial drone taxi or urban air mobility vehicle (UAM) service, as early as the end of 2025, to reduce traffic congestion on Seoul's roads, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport said Tuesday.

Under the ambitious plan, the ministry shared its plans to introduce unmanned drone taxis by 2035, after 10 years of trials testing the stability of driverless aerial vehicle technology. Land authorities will begin pilot tests for driverless drone taxis in early 2030, before their full commercialization.

The UAM vehicle market is still in its infancy. However, a group of automakers and technology companies is expanding investments into UAM systems under the premise of reducing traffic congestion in major metropolitan areas around the world.

The land ministry expects the global UAM market to grow rapidly, reaching an estimated size of 730 trillion won or about 617.59 billion US dollars by 2040. The estimated value of the domestic UAM market could reach around 13 trillion won by then, the ministry said.

In addition, the ministry will also build a 'vertiport' in the capital's main traffic hub, where drone taxis can safely take off and land vertically.

The drone taxis will fly at an altitude of 300 to 600 meters, with UAM passengers will be able to reach their destination three times faster than using a conventional car, according to the ministry.

To develop the drone taxi industry ecosystem, the ministry also plans to cooperate with private companies. To that end, the ministry plans to select vertiport and UAM management companies to encourage sustainable industrial growth.

In November 2020, Seoul City authorities and the ministry successfully staged a drone taxi flight demonstration. The two-seat aerial vehicle flew about seven minutes over Yeouido, downtown Seoul.

The ministry plans to hold a test flight event for the two UAM vehicles sometime in November at Incheon International Airport. However, since there is no global standard for the emerging industry, it remains to be seen what type of vehicle will be used for the drone taxi version in Korea.

Further details of the vision have been included in the UAM concept book released by the ministry on Tuesday. The ministry said it would also continue to expand its partnerships with technology companies for the research and development of UAM vehicles.

"We will do our best to commercialize UAM, a state-of-the-art urban transportation system, early", said Second Deputy Land Minister Hwang Seong-kyu in his statement, citing the Korea Times September 28.